Here is a list of the top 10 events that had the most repercussions globally in 2017. This is 'a' list, and not 'the' list, and is in no particular order!

Trump as President and the chaotic year in the US and abroad

January 2017 saw Donald Trump being sworn in as the President of the United States. His presidency was controversial and the year didn’t let up on controversies: some unfortunate, but most were a result of his mercurial temper and chaotic leadership style. One of the more intriguing decisions was Trump firing the FBI director, James Comey, who was investigating Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn. A week later, The New York Times published details from a memo where the president allegedly asked him to drop his investigation on Flynn.

For the rest of 2017, there was steady news around Russian interference in not only the US elections but also allegedly altering the US society through social media platforms. Four people have been charged and a couple of guilty pleas have been secured. The year also witnessed #notmypresident movement, women’s marches against Trump, the travel ban protests, the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, etc.

In a weak year for legislative victories (despite the Republican Party holding the majority in the House, Senate and a seat in the White House), the tax legislation in December 2017 was a significant change. The drastic changes in corporate income taxes and personal deductions have long-term ramifications for people, businesses and countries. The Republican Party rushed through its tax bill without any Democrat voting with them and gave President Trump his first major legislative victory. The tax bill succeeded where Republicans have repeatedly failed for years: repealed the individual health care mandate, dealing a blow to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

Overall, the US’ standing in the world took a beating as the world watched with puzzlement, astonishment and anger at the various stances taken by President Trump and his team.

Contrasting economic fortunes in China and India

China enjoyed strong growth numbers. It took giant strides on economic, environmental and infrastructure fronts, Xi Jinping’s consolidated his power and the country is now a bigger proponent of global trade. Fueled by huge government funds, China has become the world’s biggest market for electric cars. Chinese customers buy more General Motors-branded cars than Americans as over 50 per cent of the world’s electric cars were sold in China in 2017. While India also has similar ambitious plans on moving away from ICE cars by 2030, a combination of demonetisation, GST and US policies has slowed down the economy. The country had to struggle with several disruptions due to increased pollution levels too, with the capital city having the worst air quality. India now leads the world in highest pollution-related deaths. While China’s leadership went on an anti-corruption focus and purged several vital leaders over the past few years, India’s push seemed more diluted, mainly due to the acquittal of the perpetrators of the 2G scam. The country also saw the BJP consolidate its power in several new states. While this has yielded benefits regarding collective push for policies and growth, there have also been concerns about intolerance and dissent. Shortcomings notwithstanding, India’s stock market index rose to record levels.

Mother nature’s fury

2017 witnessed too many “once-in-a-lifetime” natural disasters. Hurricane Harvey destructed 300 miles killing 88 people and causing damages to the extent of US$150 billion to $180 billion. Rainfall was unprecedented as storms unleashed 33 trillion gallons of water into the southern US. On the heels of Harvey, Hurricane Irma damaged about 95 per cent of the buildings in the Barbuda Island. Irma continued westward and northward, leaving at least 72 people dead. Hurricane Maria came devastated Puerto Rico, killing over a thousand and knocking out the entire power grid. Almost 3.5 million residents did not have power, drinking water or food supplies as well. Several months later, more than 25 per cent of the island remains without power. Further west, California saw devastating wildfires that burnt down nearly 1.2 million acres in the already drought-stricken state.

Flooding in India, Bangladesh and Nepal saw almost 40 million lives disrupted and several deaths. Entire villages were submerged and thousands of lives were lost. In the Philippines, Manila was brought to a standstill by storm Tembin as streets were made impassable. In the island of Mindanao, uncontrolled logging in the mountains tore away natural defences. Warmer temperatures in the Polar regions continue to impact both biodiversity and logistics.

North Korea and Kim Jong Un – crazy year, crazy conversations

Two technological developments in 2017 made North Korea an even more prominent global threat: hydrogen bomb and intercontinental ballistic missile. The flight time and distance of its intercontinental ballistic missile potentially puts the entire United States within range. It also claims to have detonated a hydrogen bomb that could fit in its intercontinental ballistic missile. US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un soon revelled in taking verbal shots at each other. The dictator called Trump a “dotard,” while Trump responded with the “little rocket man.” Every day seemed to bring with it new worries of something tipping over. Miraculously, there is a temporary thaw in the North and South Korean relationship. Whether it is a carefully orchestrated truce to get to participate in the Olympics in South Korea remains to be seen.

Terrorism and gun-related violence continued

There were 1097 attacks worldwide, killing 7456 people in 2017. The year’s deadliest attack came on 14 October, when a suspected Al-Shabaab member detonated a massive truck bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing 512 and wounding another 312. As the world’s gun capital, the United States saw the most violence. Amongst deadly shooting, eight people were shot at a Dallas Cowboys watch party in Plano, and 26 people were shot dead inside Sutherland Springs church in Texas. 64-year-old Stephen Paddock topped it all as he carried out the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history: barricading himself in a hotel room in a Las Vegas Strip, he opened fire on an outdoor concert, murdering 58 people. His motive remains a mystery. New York City saw an ISIS-inspired Uzbek immigrant renting a truck and slamming it into pedestrians on a bike path near the World Trade Centre, killing eight people. A similar plough-down happened in Barcelona with even more casualties. In the UK, the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack on 4 June, 2017, killed six people while a suicide bomber targeted an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, killing at least 22 people and wounding 512 more. One of the most devastating attacks was one in Egypt where militants killed more than 300 Sufi Muslims at a mosque in the Sinai Peninsula. In a country known for targeting the Coptic Christian minority, this attack on Muslims was dastardly.

Cyber security issues of 2017

With increasing digital technologies, cloud-based storage options and a networked world, the ecosystem for hacking has never been better. The Russian meddling in the US election and its influence through social media feeds continued to spill over from 2016. Facebook admitted that Russia used its platform in an attempt to sway the 2016 American presidential election and the 2017 French election. In a bid to clamp down any subversive activity, Facebook shut down 30,000 accounts in France alone. In the US, this prompted the appointment of Special Prosecutor Robert Muller and has already seen a few indictments. The tightening of the noose around the White House and possibly President Trump himself has also been fought by the establishment by targeted discrediting of people and process.

Credit rating company, Equifax Credit, was hit by a significant data loss in September affecting 143 million US customers and 600,000 UK customers. Yahoo topped data breach concerns as it admitted that hackers accessed 3 billion accounts. Further, “ransom-ware” attacks on several large corporate and financial institutions cost hundreds of millions in ransoms being paid to “get their data back unaffected.”

In the US, the movement brought down several powerful men.

Investigations by The New York Times highlighted several allegations of sexual misconduct. Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was fired from the company he built. Netflix cut ties with Kevin Spacey after several men came forward with stories of harassment. The premiere of Louis CK’s latest film was pulled after he admitted to inappropriate behaviour. Matt Lauer, a prominent TV anchor, was fired. Dr. Larry Nasser, entrusted with medical check-ups of women gymnasts, was dragged to court, and several members of the US Congress have announced their resignation or will not seek re-election. What was even sadder than the realisation was the blaming of the victims for their attire, and “mixed signals.” Some new tensions added to existing ones in the Middle East Let us start with some small good news: ISIS as a terrorist organisation has almost been decimated and didn’t do as much damage in the region as in past years. Other than that, where does one even start with the troubles in the Middle East? After long years of negotiations with the global community, Iran, a few years ago, signed an agreement that allowed it to retain its nuclear capabilities and not be ostracized in return for monitoring agreements. With US President Donald Trump calling out the deal as “the worst one the US made,” there are worries about going back on the agreement. This has led to war of words – both in diplomatic circles like the UN and public ones like Twitter. The nuclear deal certainly rankled the power centres like Saudi Arabia and they have been fuming for a while. In 2017, the small-but-rich-in oil-and-natural-gas Qatar rubbed Saudi Arabia and several of its allies the wrong way when Al Jazzera network carried pro-Iran and pro-Israel stories and Qatar called the President of Iran to wish him. Riyadh has always accused Qatar of backing radical Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS. Last year the relationship exploded into open diplomatic warfare: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain announced that they were severing diplomatic ties with Qatar and suspended air, land, and sea travel to and from the country. Libya, Yemen and the Maldives soon joined the boycott. Saudi Arabia also made news with its shifts in power centre and house arrest of several key members of the royal family. President Trump’s recent decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has sparked new fears and worries about instability in the region throwing peace process into more disarray.

The sad, pervasive nature of sexual harassment by powerful men.

#Metoo an awareness campaign for survivors of sexual harassment created by Tarana Burke in 2006 went viral eleven years later. After actress Alyssa Milano tweeted, “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘me too’ as their status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem,” the hash tag exploded across social media. Hundreds of thousands of women and some men came forward with their experiences of sexual misconduct. The phrase was used millions of times on Facebook and Twitter on the first day. The movement spread to at least 85 countries.

The epidemic in the US

The rampant marketing and promotion of pharmaceutical drugs in the United States has been creating major crises, like addiction, cost and casualties have increased. It became so bad that President Donald Trump declared America’s opioid epidemic a national emergency. The White House Council of Economic Advisers reported that the epidemic’s true cost in 2015 was more than $500 billion! Illegal, lab-made fentanyl contributed to the death of at least half of fatal opioid overdoses raising concerns around artificial ways of creating and sustaining demand for additive products. All of this meant that healthcare players came under the radar as the issue reached a tipping point. Opioids and prescription medication addiction became new focal points on par with nicotine and smoking. The US Department of Justice criminally charged hundreds of medical professionals who were prescribing unnecessary opioids and contributed to the crisis.

Efforts have started to pay as insurance companies are limiting the kinds of drugs and beginning to pay more attention to need and usage patterns. Doctors and medical professionals are being both educated and warned about the abuse that they may enable. And pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors are practising a safer and saner approach to marketing.

The war against news

Traditionally means of gathering information and their outlets for distribution were reasonably controlled and verified. While there always was the fringe, rabble - rouser outlets, society read what they liked and trusted media outlets. But what started in 2016, continued through 2017: “fake news.” Societies derided news as ‘fake’ merely based on likeability. Facts and figures were treated as mere appendages, and the core truth was either taken or discarded based on what was to be gained or lost. Emboldened by the US President, legions of people have virulently expressed strong views on most topics, to the extent that civility and morality have been compromised. The pressure of 24x7 news is understandable and in a rush to be the first and to gather sensational news, outlets do make mistakes. Indian panelists are known for their shouting matches, but that pattern is similar to most other countries as well.

These were the top events that impacted people and economies to a large extent. We also had some also-rans that didn’t make the cut: the GST rollout in India (not included as it was covered quite a bit in IE), discussions on Brexit, the ban of Russian athletes from the Olympics and the fantastic year for Indian cricket.

IE, the business magazine from south was launched in 1968 and pioneered business journalism in south. Through the 45 years IE has been focusing on well-presented and well-researched articles. When giants in the industry stumbled to keep pace with the digital revolution, IE stayed affixed embracing technology.